Stricter gun control laws or even the banning of all guns wouldn’t have stopped the Newtown Massacre or prevent other tragic events like it from happening. Why? Because guns are not the problem. You don’t ban cars just because people are killed in car accidents or by drunk drivers. The 911 al Qaeda terrorists used small box cutter knives instead of guns to hijack the airplanes they boarded, and later used the aircrafts as weapons to kill three thousand people, without firing a single shot. You don’t ban knives and airplanes just because criminals decide to use them as mass murder weapons. Unfortunately, criminals will always find a way to get guns, even if responsible and law abiding citizens are denied the right to own them.

Gun control doesn’t translate into safer states and cities and it doesn’t prevent mass murders. Economist John Lott cited a sobering statistic: “With just one single exception, the attack on congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords in Tucson in 2011, every public shooting since at least 1950 in the U.S. in which more than three people have been killed has taken place where citizens are not allowed to carry guns.” The facts do not lie: Mass shootings in the U.S. today are no more common than they have been in past decades. Furthermore, mass murders declined from 42 in the 1990s to 26 in the first decade of the 21st century. Statistics show that guns were responsible for only 52 percent of the 25 deadliest mass murders in the 20th century. Fires ranked first as murder weapons and knives a close third to fire arms.

Remember the “Batman Murders” in an Aurora, Colorado movie theater on July 20th, 2012? Did you know that law abiding citizens (even with permits) were not allowed to carry their weapons into the theater? The Cinemark Theater was the only one that banned concealed handguns carried by law abiding citizens. That was the theater the killer chose. The shooter knew he didn’t have to worry about encountering others with guns to resist him. Everyone knew that guns weren’t allowed in that theater. Do you really believe that if the shooter knew that others in the theater had guns he would have done what he did without encountering any resistance? Things would probably have turned out differently if just one citizen carrying a gun would have been in that theater. Once again, the law abiding citizens obeyed the law and the criminal did not. The result: 12 people died and 58 were injured. No gun control legislation would have prevented this tragedy from happening.

These cowards almost invariably go after people who cannot defend themselves, like school children, in “gun free zones”. You don’t see them going face to face against police officers or armed guards. They go for the easy prey in places where they know they will encounter little or no resistance. Richard Mack, a former Arizona sheriff says that “preventing any adult at a school from having access to a firearm eliminates any chance the killer can be stopped in time to prevent a rampage.” If criminals know you have no weapons for self defense, it’s much easier for them to decide to break into your home or work place, rob you, hurt you and even kill you. We cannot allow our government to take away our Second Amendment right to own and carry arms. The right to “keep and bear arms” is as important as our right to free speech and of religion. However, that is exactly what left wing politicians intend to do if we let them, including our present administration. Barack Obama and Michael Bloomberg are gun control advocates; however, they have armed guards protecting them round the clock. So, gun protection for the political elite and not for the people?

Finally, because criminals will always manage to get guns, we should not be defenseless against them. That is why we need to send them a strong message that we have guns, know how to use them, and will use them to protect ourselves and our families from them. Gun control would only make it easier for criminals and cowards like Adam Lanza to hurt and kill innocent people. We need to identify these criminals and deal with them before they are able to commit these atrocities, because gun control will never stop them.